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Philosophical Issues in the Psychology of C. G. Jung

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This work is a study of the various influences on Carl Jung both from his relationship to his father and the continental scholars of his day. It successfully brings Jung into focus as a product of his time and makes his works seem a little less esoteric. I find the author perhaps overstated the case regarding Ernst Haeckel's influence on Jung and possible understated Haeckel's influence of Freud. Jung surrendered his obsession with "recapitulation" once it was discovered by Haeckel and others to be not always the case. Jung argues from silence regarding how the collective unconscious is phylo-genetically inherited rather than rely on any theory of evolution that was likely to be proven to be incorrect in the near future. Modifications of Darwin's theories abounded then as they do now. Silence was a safer argument. It left today's Jungian analyst a broader context from which to examine the archetypal basis of the psyche. Marilyn Nagy also fails to emphasize the "as if" quality of the inhabitants of the unconscious which leaves a reader to believe that intrusions from the collective are far more intellectual than they are in reality. In reality, these "as if" folks can consume the life script of their captive. Ask any recovering alcoholic if he/she is wrestling with a god.